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Issues related to the well-being of mothers and children from pregnancies that the mother deems unwanted are of continuing concern to researchers and policy makers. Using data on a cohort of young mothers from the NLSY, this paper investigates the determinants of wantedness among women whose first pregnancies resulted in live births. A nontrivial proportion of women reported that they did not want their pregnancy at that time--34 percent. Multivariate analysis tested for the independent effects of demographic factors as well as the mother's family background characteristics, other attributes and behaviors at the time of the pregnancy, and maternal attitudes and aspirations, including fertility and education/work expectations. The analyses showed that family background characteristics were not independently related to pregnancy wantedness, but being black, young and never married retained their importance for a lower likelihood of pregnancy wantedness. It appears that motivation to limit or postpone childbearing exists for white women, but for black women, orientations toward work are less incompatible with childbearing. Regardless of motivations for childbearing, large numbers of white and especially black women continue to have unwanted pregnancies, a phenomena which deserves continued research and policy attention.